Captain William Tee

Captain William Tee. , Captain Tee was a veteran of two wars. In 1781, as a young waterman, he helped guide the French fleet up the York River where it blocked seven thousand British reinforcements from rescuing Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, thus, the beginning of the end of the War for American Independence. The last shots were fired when the British evacuated Charleston, SC in 1782., During the War of 18 12, he was master pilot of a small United States fleet consisting of the USS Constellation, two schooners and sixteen gun boats guarding Hampton Roads. He supervised the sinking of several ships to block the Elizabeth River channels to keep the British from using the Gosport Shipyard for resupply and repairs. In June 1813, the British were foiled in their attempt to capture the shipyard by land. Militiamen and sailors defending Portsmouth, killed more than two hundred and wounded many more at the Battle of Craney Island. No American lives were lost., In 1820, America's first lightship was built by John Pool in Hampton, Virginia. The ship's command was given to Captain William Tee. Historians seem to agree that the 70-ton ship was first stationed at Willoughby Spit at the mouth of the Elizabeth River but couldn't take the weather. The poor design of the ship's wooden round hull tossed the ship around in storms, driving it miles from its assigned location once the anchor chain was broken . After several years, the small ship was shifted to the Craney Island Flats. Lightships were important aids to navigation and are an important part of our maritime heritage. They served mariners in this country for 163 years, from 1820 to 1983. Captain Tee commanded lightships until his death in 1849 at age 91., Captain William Tee's grandson, John Calhoun Tee, was wounded with more than a third of the 3rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, and captured near the Stone wall at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. He spent the remainder of the war in a Yankee prison. It was said his prison time was extended because he refused to take the "Oath of Loyalty". He was a prominent Portsmouth contractor and first commander of the Stonewall Camp, United Confederate Veterans. He died in at age 89 in 1927 and is buried about a mile west at Oak Grove Cemetery.